Gritty twin sisters who made history - conquest of Mt. Everest and others

In modern India, though women have held positions of power and influence such as the President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, Governors and judges, not to speak of top positions in private and public sector undertakings, the bottom line is women in the lower strata of the society. especially in rural India, have to make long strides in the area of women empowerment, equal rights, etc. As for as the Constitution of India is concerned, under it are well secured women’s rights - mainly, equality, dignity, and freedom from discrimination; Besides, there are various statutes governing the rights of Indian women. That, practically the laws governing the women's equal rights are not followed, rather, they are glaringly flouted or simply ignored in many cultures is the reality from which we can not escape. Only in the1970s, feminist activism in India gained importance and the activists were focused on such serious issues as rape, female infanticide, women's health, women's safety, gender bias in employment, and women's literacy.

The history of Indian women since ancient time has seen lots of changes. However, scores of Indian families are yet to reconcile themselves to the change of attitude toward women in the society in modern India and hesitate to give full freedom to their girls' desires and aspirations. Parents are more concerned about their marriage than about their cherished passions. Consequently numerous women's innate talents remain unnoticed or Un-blossemed. Not withstanding such impediments, family and societal pressures and criticisms, there are innumerable girls and women who choose an adventurous life with firm passion, sustained focus and achieve success. Tashi and Nancy Malik from Dehra Dun achieved a great feat - conquering the roof of the world in 2013. What is so special about them? They are twins!!

In the last few decades more and more mountaineers
world over make a beeline to the base of Mt. Everest and make the final
climb to the tallest peak. Amazingly, there has been more women
participation in this thrilling expedition that is wrought with so many
dangers such as snow avalanches, deep crevices, snow storms, etc. Scores of
people make an assault during the summer season when risk will be less.
What is called “fair weather” window attracts lots of people who
try their luck on this day. Normally more than 100 people participate
during the fair weather window. Sometime ago more than 250 climbers reached the summit in a 48-hour
stretch of good weather, surmounting difficulties in the
“death zone” above 8,000 meters.

Tashi and Nancy Malik, two 21-year-old Indian sisters from Dehra Dun, on Sunday, 19 May 2013, made history by becoming the first twins ever to conquer tallest roof at 8,848 meters on the world - Mount Everest. These daring girls happen to be Guinness record holders as first female
twins to climb Mount Everest, and the first twins to scale
the Seven Summits which they achieved later. During the same stretch of time, the first women from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan climbed the peak and made history. The girls told the reporters that they were proud of their achievement which became a reality after three yeas of preparations and their expedition was funded by some sponsors. They also expressed their willingness to scale other top mountains across the globe. Her family members were very happy and their mom said she and her family members were very much concerned about the safety of their daughters and they always kept on praying for the safe return of Naungshi Malik and Tashi Malik.An interesting aspect of this expedition was when they stood atop the roof of the world (May 19 2013), they were later joined by a young 21 year old Pakistani girl Samina Baig and these three girls placed Pakistan and India flags atop the peak to spread the message of peace and friendship between two countries. Now residents of Dehradun, Tashi and Nungshi hail from Haryana state. Her father is a retired Indian Army officer, Col Virendra Singh Malik, now in Dehradun after retirement. The twins attended many schools across India, including the famous school Lawrence School, Lovedale, near Ooty (Octagamund), Tamil Nadu. They studied at Sikkim Manipal University between July 2009 and January 2013 and graduated in Journalism & Mass Communication in first division.

It seems right from their early age, the girls seem to have evinced interest in mountaineering, an adventurous, but dangerous, sport, that requires hard work, guts and in-depth training to face near-death like situations. The girls had substantial training at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in 2010.

In its 60th edition, Guinness World Records has featured the twin sisters as first female twins to scale Everest together and in
its 2016 issue as the first twins and siblings to complete Seven
Summits. On 16 Dec 2014, after summiting Mt. Vinson in Antarctica,
they became world's first twins and siblings to scale the 'Seven
Summits' together. Given below is the twins' amazing list of adventures and 'World Records; each one being a milestone in history.

01. First female twins to summit Mt. Everest ( at 21 years of age; May 19, 2013))

02. First siblings & twins to reach ‘Seven Summits’- highest peaks in all continents. Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa (February 2012), Mt Elbrus in Europe (2013), Mt Aconcagua, South America (Jan. 2014), Mt Carstensz Pyramid in Australasia in March. Next was McKinley, North America, in June and finally Mt Vinson Dec. 2014). At 16,045 ft, it is the highest peak in Antarctica and located 660 nautical miles from the South Pole.

05. First twins to reach South Pole on Skis (conquered in December, 2014)

06. First twins to reach North Pole on Skis. On April 21, 2015; they planted the Indian flag here when the temperature reached -30 degree C.As for other regional and nation records, the significant one is they were the youngest and fastest South Asians to reach North & South Pole on Skis (completed in less than 4 months).

Literally, the highly gritty twins from Dehradun went on a conquest spree across the globe with undeterred focus and courage. Theirs is a story of firm commitments to passion, determination backed by hard work They were conferred India's highest adventure honor 'Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award' 2015 by the President of India on 29 Aug 2016.

Lables

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I am KN.Jayaraman, Retd Geologist, author of this blog. I have a strong passion for Ancient Indian Culture, art, architecture, etc...
I started this blog with a view to covering the above areas and also odd things related to India.
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